Goodbye Poland

A memoir. Siberia. Escape and the WWII war years. (Illustrated)

Goodbye Poland is a gripping true story of survival, sacrifice, and the quiet strength of a boy forced into manhood by war.

Seventeen-year-old Stefan Maczka was born into a proud legacy—his father, a Polish cavalry officer, helped stop the Russian advance into Europe during the 1920 ‘Miracle of the Vistula.’ That victory secured Poland’s independence and earned the Maczkas a plot of land on the new frontier. But Stalin never forgot the humiliation.

In 1939, he got his revenge.

Overnight, the Soviets rounded up the same families who had once defied them—ripping them from their homes, loading them into cattle trucks, and deporting them to the frozen wastelands of Siberia. Goodbye Poland is Stefan’s story, told in his own words, exactly as he spoke—honest, direct, and impossible to forget.

More than a memoir, it’s a rare eyewitness account of Stalin’s quiet war on the Polish people—a story still echoing today.

Praise for Goodbye Poland:

“A remarkable account told without overdramatization.”
“I learnt more here than in any school history lesson.”
“One man’s long, long journey to freedom.”
“This story needs to be known.”

You’ve heard about the Western Front. You’ve read about the Holocaust.
What Stalin did to the Poles happened again a century later—in Ukraine.